VIDALIA, La. &045; There’s been no spring break this week in Vidalia, but the baseball team got a day’s worth of work in Wednesday nonetheless.

Thanks to some dry weather.

That’s been what the Vikings have battled at times this season, and it’s showed at the plate more than anything. But Wednesday evening was perhaps the first time all season they got on the field and had a legitimate workout hitting, and it showed.

When almost the entire lineup jumped all over the ball in the fifth inning in Thursday’s 8-0 win over Runnels, the coaches reaped the benefits.

&uot;That’s what I’ve been wanting us to do &045; swing the bats,&uot; Vidalia head coach Johnny Lee Hoffpauir said. &uot;We had a great hitting practice. We had great concentration, and that carried over to today. I think that’ll help our confidence in the long run. I told the team, ‘We’re getting there.’

&uot;Sometimes you have to have a little patience. It’s hard to do sometimes, but this team does work hard.&uot;

The Vikings slapped the ball all over the diamond and once out of the park when Tyler Bruce cranked a pinch-hit two-run homer over the scoreboard in right. The Vikings scored five runs in the inning all on two outs &045; two very long outs on the first two pitches from Ben Young courtesy of Trey Keith and Cameron Ainsworth.

That broke the game open against the Class B Raiders from Baton Rouge and reminded the home team they’re a pretty good club after all after they had just four strikeouts for the game.

&uot;That’s impressive,&uot; said first baseman Reid Simpson, who had two doubles along with Brett Hinson. &uot;It’s the whole nine. Everybody is picking up the slack. When we need a key hit from somebody, somebody comes on. Yesterday we had a real good practice.&uot;

Bruce’s shot highlighted the inning and was the biggest blow of the game, but the Vikings jumped on Young after putting up two runs in the first and going quiet in the next three innings. Chris Ensminger had a double to drive in Jordan Brewer for the first run, and Simpson doubled in Hinson to set up Bruce’s two-run bomb.

The Vikings kept it going with a hit from Lance Moore and an error on a ball off the bat of Graham Roberts. They sent 10 men to the plate before Young got Keith to fly out to end the inning.

&uot;We had a couple of missed plays in the outfield, and that hurt us really bad,&uot; Runnels head coach Tookie Johnson said. &uot;Then we had an error at shortstop. But (Young) made a couple of mistakes against a couple of batters. With the plays, who knows? We could still be in the game.&uot;

The Vikings finally got around to Young after getting a two-run double from Simpson in the first inning before going quiet. The only quiet inning came in the fourth when Young got a couple of strikeouts, but Hinson smacked his first double in the third with two outs before being left stranded.

Young pitched all six, and the Vikings tacked on another in the sixth when Hinson doubled in Cameron Ainsworth after Ainsworth led off the inning with a single.

&uot;We just had to wait on him,&uot; Simpson said. &uot;Everybody was swinging real early. We had to sit back and drive the ball. We had some guys being impatient at the plate. When they came back to the dugout, we’d say to sit on it, connect and drive it in the hole. Everybody was doing their job tonight.&uot;

The Raiders couldn’t return the favor at the plate against Vidalia left-hander Tony Godbold, who went six innings before hard-throwing Will Thomas closed the door in the seventh. The Raiders had only six strikeouts for the game but had just two hits and left three runners on base.

&uot;I’m not sure &045; just seemed like our timing was off,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;We weren’t getting out in front of him. We just weren’t getting good wood on the ball. They’ve got a good defense, too. You’ve got to hit it in the gap against them.&uot;

Godbold fanned the first two batters of the game before three errors put runners at second and third, but the left-hander got a ground ball out to end the inning. He then had a string of eight straight retired before hitting a batter in the fifth inning.

Thomas came in and retired the side in order in the seventh.

&uot;He was a little bit erratic, but he battled,&uot; Hoffpauir said of Godbold. &uot;That was a positive. He had some good battles at the plate that he won.&uot;